THE DAILY ROUND 129 CHAPTER X HOW WE DID NOT ESCAPE 152 CHAPTER XI THE ALCOVE 172 CHAPTER XII HOW WE AMUSED OURSELVES 193 CHAPTER XIII ARMISTICE DAYS 222 CHAPTER XIV FREEDOM 246 INDEX 267 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS _To face page_ THE DOOM OF YOUTH _Frontispiece_ “AT SEVEN O’CLOCK THE GERMANS CAME OVER” 16 OUR DAILY ROLL 48 THE ‘KANTINE’ AT MAINZ 56 THE QUEUE OUTSIDE THE PAYMASTER’S OFFICE 62 A PRISON CELL 104 A GALLANT ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE 162 THE BILLIARD-ROOM AT MAINZ 172 OUR PRISON SQUARE 194 “FIVE HUNDRED ODD OFFICERS WALKING ROUND THE SQUARE” 196 OUR LEADING LADY 214 LIEUT. MILTON HAYES AS “SILAS P. HAWKSHAW” 218 THE PRISONERS OF MAINZ CHAPTER I THE GREAT OFFENSIVE § 1 _March 21st, 1918._ The small box respirator, like the thirty-nine articles of the Faith, should be taken on trust; one is quite prepared to believe in its efficiency. Countless Base instructors have extolled it, countless memos from Division have confirmed their panegyrics; and with these credentials one carries it on one’s chest in a perfect faith; but one has no wish to put its merits to the test. No one if he can help it wishes to have his face surrounded by elastic and india-rubber, and his nose clamped viciously by bent iron; and for that reason my chief memory of March 21st was the prolonged discomfort of a gas-mask. For from the moment that the barrage opened at 5 a.m. the air was full of the insidious smell of gas. Masks were clapped on, and thus hooded the machine-gunners fumbled desperately in search of stoppages; it was an uncomfortable morning.